Kanelis: ADA benefits every American

Allow me this admission: I chuckled slightly when I learned the other day West Texas A&M University opened a newly built football locker room that is accessible to people with physical disabilities.

WT spent $2 million on a new locker room that will be used by hulking, physically fit athletes who — when they aren’t attending class — are beating the stuffing out of other equally hulking athletes on the playing field.

So I thought I would inquire with those at WT who are in charge of these things: Why make an athletic locker room accessible to people with physical impairments?

The federal government makes the school do it, according to Gary Barnes, WT vice president for business and finance.

“All state-owned buildings are governed by state codes,” Barnes told me, “and those codes follow the Texas Accessibility Standards” which are established by the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

Congress approved the act in 1990 on a recommendation from President George H.W. Bush.

Barnes admitted that when the idea for a new locker room came up, along with the requirement it must include accessibility features for handicapped individuals, WT officials had an “Are you kidding me?” moment. But when legal counsel explained the federal requirements to them, it became clear that WT had no choice but to comply.

“Sure, we did question it internally with the architects,” Barnes said. But there really should be no problem with making a locker room accessible to all who might have reason to use it at one time or another.

Barnes said WT’s First United Bank Event Center, which opened about seven years ago to play host to men and women’s basketball games, also is accessible to people with physical disabilities.

And what about the cost of enforcing this government mandate?

“Obviously it’s more expensive” to include handicapped accessibility in the design, Barnes said.

But finding the exact cost add-on is a bit trickier.

I called the architect, Lavin and Associates of Amarillo. The executive with the company couldn’t identify the costs right off the top, and said the general contractor would know that figure.

I called the contractor, Wiley Hicks, and was told that the figure hadn’t been broken out at that firm’s office either. But the contractor executive said he didn’t think the cost was exorbitant. All they had to do was install handrails, make some of the showers wide enough for wheelchairs and build ramps for chair-bound individuals to navigate. The cost isn’t exorbitant.

WT would face a significant expense, however, in outfitting Kimbrough Stadium to be ADA compliant. The law doesn’t require existing public facilities to add compliance features up front. But if Kimbrough, built in the early 1950s, ever is upgraded — and Barnes predicted it will be — it will require a huge amount of work to make itself compliant under the law.

“It would be cheaper to build a new stadium,” according to Ken Johnson, assistant WT athletic director.

ADA was enacted for the noblest of reasons, to ensure all individuals have access to facilities that are open to the public.

In the case of the WT locker rooms, while the they aren’t precisely open for general public use, they are financed with public money. WT doesn’t spend taxpayer funds directly the way Amarillo College — which depends on property tax revenue to finance operations — would spend it. WT relies on money appropriated by the Texas Legislature, as well as tuition and fee revenue provided by students.

Has there ever been anyone wheeling themselves into a WT locker room? Barnes said, “I don’t know if we’ve had that happen.”

But the law is there in case someone does. Who’s to say that one day a WT or a visiting team’s player confined to a wheelchair because of, say, a broken leg, wouldn’t need to use the place?

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Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear. Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787

The next time you pull up to use a drive up ATM machine, look for the headphone jack insert. That is there to let blind customers use headphones while the machine converts the screen messages via the required text-to-speech ADA law. The numerical key pad will also have the Braille dots on them.

Just a correction on your article. WT football stadium known than as Buffalo Bowl was opened in 1959 not the early 50s. First game was against U of Arizona and and the Buffs lost 9 to 7. Also Lyndon Johnson was at the stadium to dedicate it. It was a nice stadium and still is.

There is no way it would cost more to make it ada compliant than to build a new stadium. Current stadium is fine, its never full anyway plus that money can better be served educating students.

Of course the locker room is not the exclusive domain of football players. It is used by coaches, game officials, media personalities, dozens of support workers, psychologists, university dignitaries and others, any one of whom might be using a wheelchair. Suppose the best player of 2005 went to Iraq and was injured by an explosion. He is recruited to be a strategic coach. Is it the American thing to deny him a job because he can't get to the workplace?

If your University President or Pastor uses a wheelchair, how could they rally the team at halftime if the locker room is inaccessible to them?

BTW, in 2012, no one is wheelchair bound or confined anymore. Wheelchairs have wheels for a reason - they are liberating!